The Angel's Tears

Still as dazzling as ever, this man.

I swallowed dryly and studied him at leisure. Hair like spun gold blazing under the sun, aquamarine eyes so clear it felt almost presumptuous to meet them. Flawless, smooth white skin, a high and aristocratic nose, and lips curved in the gentlest of smiles.

If an angel from a temple fresco were to descend into the real world, wings and all, wouldn't he look exactly like this? The pure white uniform he wore only made it worse.

But hold on a moment.

Why is he smiling at me like that, so brilliantly?

Anyone watching would think he'd just been reunited with someone he'd been longing for. And then...

Did he just call me 'Erna'?

As though speaking the name of a beloved.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

"Not at all. It was I who came calling without so much as a word of notice."

My unease only climbed higher. Smiling awkwardly, I offered my greeting and took the seat across from him.

His sudden appearance had my head spinning, but in a way, this actually worked out rather well.

All right. Since it's come to this, why not test the waters a little?

"It's been four years, hasn't it? I believe this is the first time we've met since the Academy graduation. I trust you've been well?"

Start with something safe. By opening with the point that this was our first meeting in four years, I'd be watching his reaction like a hawk. If the man I'd encountered that day really was the Grand Duke, he would have to show some sign of it. So I sat there with my little strategy in place, waiting for his reply.

"Hmm, has it?"

Huh? What was that odd response about? The Grand Duke's lips curved into a faintly knowing smile as he gave me this maddeningly ambiguous answer, and while I was still puzzling over it alone—

"By the way, Erna."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Are you not going to call me 'Sunbae' anymore?"

"...I beg your pardon?"

"We did promise, I seem to recall."

"I promised?"

What on earth was he talking about? We were Academy alumni in name only—nowhere near close enough to be throwing around senior-junior titles. We'd barely crossed paths, and I'd never once had reason to address him at all.

Like we were ever on such familiar terms...

"Ah—yes. Of course. Sunbae. It's been a while."

But my deliberation didn't last long. Honestly, I had no memory of any such promise, but that wasn't what mattered right now. The urgent business at hand was confirming whether we had, in fact, shared a bed.

The only question was... how exactly did one ask that?

1. Did we, by any chance, sleep together that day?

2. Did we, by any chance, cross the line?

3. Did we, by any chance, do something we'll both regret?

Not one of them could pass my lips. If the answer was yes, that was a problem—but if it was no, the fallout afterward would be catastrophic.

If he really was the man from that day, surely he'd have said something by now.

Something like, say:

"I do wonder whether your body is recovering properly. I've been worrying all this time that we may have been... a little too enthusiastic, that night."

Yes. Something exactly like—

...What?

My eyes went perfectly round on their own. Too stunned to speak, I could only blink rapidly, and the angelic man let his smile turn just slightly devilish as he drew slowly closer. I trembled as I watched him come.

Oh, come on. No way.

There's no way that's... right?

"I—I really don't know what you're talking about."

"Ah. So we're playing the innocent, are we?"

"Haha. Innocent? I truly, honestly have no idea what you mean, Your Highness..."

I rolled my eyes frantically and clung to my ignorance, but the Grand Duke simply regarded me in silence for a long moment before lowering his head, his face the very picture of disappointment.

"That really is too cruel."

There was something unsettling in the ragged edge of his voice. When he lifted his head again, a single tear glistened in his eye, clinging to his lashes like dew caught on the petal of a rose.

And then it fell.

"To take my virginity that night—and then pretend not to know me."

Bombshell.

Oh. My. God.

I sat there gaping in shock, sputtering helplessly. It was stunning enough that the 'Leon Obsidian' named in that letter was the real, actual 'Leon Obsidian'—but the word 'virginity' coming out of his mouth? And what's more...

He's saying I was the one who attacked HIM?!

I tried to fire back—what kind of absurd nonsense was that?—but I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth. The tear that had been clinging to the Grand Duke's brow was already sliding smoothly down his cheek.

At the same moment, my heart plummeted with an audible thud. He wore the face of a man wronged—sorrowful, aggrieved, as though something precious had been stolen from him. That single tear proved everything. It proved I had no escape from this impossible situation.

Damn it...!

"You aren't seriously planning to wash your mouth clean and pretend nothing happened, are you, Marquis? After robbing a priest who had devoted his everything to God of his innocence?"

"......"

"A body that was meant to be received in the service of God alone—stained and defiled by some petty, worldly affair, to the point where I can no longer honor the doctrines of the temple."

"Wh-what is it exactly that you want from me...?"

I asked it ever so carefully, my eyes pinned to the floor. And at that, a warm, gentle smile bloomed across the Grand Duke's face once more—as if he had been waiting all along for precisely that question.

"What do I want? Why, the obvious thing, of course, Marquis. You must—"

M-must I?

"—take responsibility for me."

For... you?

"R-responsibility? As in...?"

"Marriage, naturally."

The sheer obviousness of his tone made my head spin. And then, trailing right after the dizziness, came the question.

What on earth does this man see in me?

He was the ascetic of legend—the man whose eyes never so much as flickered, no matter what breathtaking noblewoman or society lady graced his presence. For that man to simply roll over and accept that I'd ravished him? It made no sense.

Fine—let's say the foolish woman who'd taken over my body fell for the Grand Duke at first sight. Fine—let's even say she wanted to skip every tedious, clichéd stage of courtship and leap straight into his bed, for reasons I couldn't begin to fathom.

But people don't just sleep with someone because they said 'let's do it.' Does that... actually work like that?

I let my gaze drop and gave myself a thorough once-over. A gaunt frame, sallowed by years of skipping meals for the sake of work. A flat silhouette with nary a curve to speak of. Even back at the Academy, I'd never once received a confession.

My single redeeming feature might have been the eye-catching crimson of my hair—and even that was only presentable because Laura brushed and maintained it by hand. Left to my own devices, it quickly went dry and stiff, a stubborn tangle of curls.

Anyway. No matter how I looked at it, there was nothing here worth getting excited over.

What is this? Don't tell me the Grand Duke has some kind of... unusual tastes?

And if not that...

"Had you perhaps drunk a great deal that night?"

"The temple's doctrine forbids all who serve God from touching wine."

"Th-then, perhaps I knew some weakness of yours and used it to blackmail—"

"Do I look like a man who could be brought down by something so petty?"

"No, then how, in God's name—"

At my bewildered demand to know how that impregnable fortress of a man had fallen to a nobody like me, he smiled—light, and easy, and devastating.

"After you knocked me down onto the bed, Marquis, you climbed straight on top of me."

Hup.

"You pinned both my wrists before I had any chance to resist and kissed me. When I started to struggle, you pressed me down with your whole body—and I couldn't move a muscle, for fear you might hurt yourself. And all the while, your hands made quick work of my clothes. Then one of them slid lower, and lower still, toward my—"

"STOP! I get it, so stop!"

Please. I've heard quite enough!

I sank into shock. Good heavens. So it was really true—I had been the one to assault an unmarried man.

That was the kind of thing no respectable lady would ever do—but then, the woman in question was that stranger. That woman from a flower-filled letter, from some unknown world far away—she was more than capable of it. Plenty capable.

So. All right. First things first...

"G-give me some time to think."

Whatever decision I made in this state, I was bound to regret it. So I asked for time—and to my surprise, he nodded readily enough.

"Of course, I'll still be collecting what I'm owed."

Naturally, he wasn't about to let me off easy.

'Collecting what you're owed'? What on earth does that mean? I opened my mouth to ask—but in an instant he was right in front of me, his hand settling on my shoulder as he bowed his head.

Then his lips met mine, feather-light. Before I could even react, he gave my lower lip the gentlest bite, and as my mouth parted at that careful pressure, a warm feeling slipped inside.

A kiss—brief, but deep. And when he drew back just slightly, a thread of translucent breath stretched between our lips.

The Grand Duke's mouth curved upward. He laughed, unhurried and easy, like a man who'd just tasted something exquisitely sweet.

It was a thoroughly satisfied smile. The smile of a man for whom everything was going precisely according to plan.